Today we’d like to introduce you to Cathy Horning.
Hi Cathy, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Growing up all I ever wanted to be was a mom. We moved a lot, and I often found refuge in neighborhood families. And one day I wanted a family of my very own.
When I was 20, I was told that I may not be able to have children. But in the surgery recovery room, God whispered to my heart “I want to be more important to you than having children.” And I understood this was true, as my own faith journey had only begun the year before.
5 years later, I married a godly man, and miraculously we had two baby boys. One day, while attending a new mother’s group called MOPS (Mother’s of Preschoolers), the Lord spoke to my heart again. I didn’t fully grasp it, but God had planted a seed of His calling upon my life. And I knew, with all of my heart, I wanted to teach and encourage young moms and women on their faith journey, the same way God was encouraging me that morning.
The next few years, we had 2 more children, a daughter and a son, and we relocated to San Diego, California. And, the nearest thing I had done to encourage young women was to host their baby showers. Until, that is, our Pastor‘s wife went back to work, and asked if I would take over our woman’s Bible study.
Teaching Bible studies grew to speaking at women’s events, women’s retreats, writing a blog, and eventually a book. And, I have loved every single opportunity, whether I am encouraging one woman, or many women.
Around 60, I thought my teaching days were over, as our parents began to decline and needed help. Then Covid hit as well. So for the past 7 years, I have done very little speaking and teaching.
Until recently, when I wondering if I was still useful, relevant and needed in our high tech world, and much to my surprise, God is once again opening doors with opportunities and invitations to speak and teach and write. This has included mentoring a young moms group, teaching a young women’s Bible study, and speaking to the same group where God planted the seed of His calling 40 years ago, which is now named MOM CO.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I confess the journey of encouraging women has a been bumpy one. It started slow, as I raised my little ones and supported my husband through law school. Little did I know, God was using these experiences to give me many stories, lessons, and examples to share with and encourage younger women on their own faith journeys.
Each time I thought the door was wide open, and my ministry would begin to thrive, God would redirect my path. Like after law school was finished, our kids were settled in school, and the women’s ministry was growing and blooming at our church. Then the Lord asked me to step down. I confess I argued with Him, and others were baffled by my final decision to ‘pass the baton.’ And only then did the Lord reveal He was calling me to homeschool my children. When we told our kids the plan, one cried and said, “you would do that for me?” Because he knew he was struggling and sucked down with the peer pressure of middle school.
After our homeschool season, I knew ministry would look different. I continued to take classes and attend conferences, but my dreams of being a regular key note speaker or speaking on a huge platform, like Women of Faith, never came true. Other battles and callings like rheumatoid arthritis, helping care for family members, and eventually becoming my parents (both with dementia) full time caregiver kept my platforms smaller than I dreamed.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Little did I know or could I have imagined that God was using the little things along the way. For example, before there were blogs and social media, I received two letters from younger moms on the same day. One had attended my Bible studies at church, and one had been my neighbor. Each young mommy had moved away, but their letters said exactly the same thing. “We respect the way you parent your children. Would you write to us about parenting?”
I wept, as I read those two letters. I had been raised in an abusive home, and I felt so unworthy to write letters about being a good mommy. Because I was desperately trying to learn how to myself. But I began to write down the things the Lord had taught me, and over the next year and a half I wrote 15 letters. Not only to 2 moms, but to over 100 moms. Then, 7 years ago, those letters got put into a book. What a surprise!
Once on a flight to Arizona, to speak on marriage, a passenger next to me recognized me. We realized we worked out at the same gym. She was on a business trip and asked what I was speaking on. I shared my message and she asked me if I had it written anywhere. “I need that message!” I was so convicted, so I began to write my messages in a blog, which I wrote in regularly for 11 years. Until our parents got so sick and needed so much attention, I had to put it aside.
Possibly one of the most precious gifts I receive are messages from women who I have ministered to. I often write them a letter or I make them a journal of Bible verses to encourage them. I put their name in the passages, to make them personal, and teach them how to turn them into prayer.
I can’t tell you how many times God has let me know that He has used those words that I have spoken and written, about the lessons I have learned in my own life. These thank you’s have come from comforting a friend in the Middle East after devastating earthquakes to gratitude from my children and grandchildren, their friends and many others.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
I confess I could not have done any of this without my husband’s love support and belief in me! I call him my Boaz, because he was able to help me to see gifts, talent and abilities that I may not have seen myself.
I have had wonderful mentors in my life, These precious older women have taught and modeled to me how to memorize scripture, how to pray, how to love my husband and children, and how to take care of myself.
One of these dear saints used to call me about once a month. She always said, “Cathy, this is Annie. I just want to remind you that the need is not the call.” She would remind me that my family was my calling, and it was not my calling to fix others problems! So, I needed to prayerfully discern what the Lord was calling me to do.
My girlfriends have loved and supported me, cheered me on, believed in me, spoken the truth in love to me, and prayed for me. For example, when I realized what a long and hard season I was going into to care for my parents, I reached out to 8 lifelong friends in a text thread, I asked if they would pray me through what became the hardest season of my life. And they did! Even though I wasn’t able to invest in our friendship, the way I had in the past.
My children have supported me and encouraged me, One of the biggest surprises, was how they all pitched in when 15 parenting letters, which I wrote when they were young, were published in a book. They helped with editing, designing the book cover, and letting me tell stories that included them! They have always been some of my biggest fans.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cathyhorning.com/?m=1
